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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23771122">My Favorite Part</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bubblelina15/pseuds/Bubblelina15'>Bubblelina15</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Fluff</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 19:20:34</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,523</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23771122</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bubblelina15/pseuds/Bubblelina15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Nini meets a handsome stranger, but finds out shortly that he's her new noisy neighbor.  What is she going to do about it?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ricky Bowen/Nini Salazar-Roberts</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>44</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>My Favorite Part</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is a 1.5K fic based on a prompt generator where Ricky and Nini are neighbors and commence to throw dueling parties.  I hope you enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>i.<br/>“Oomph!” Nini groaned as she crashed into something hard, and fell onto the concrete.</p>
<p>“Neens?! You okay?  Nini…?” a voice could be heard through her phone, which now lay on the grass beside her, next to the sidewalk.</p>
<p>“Oh my God! I’m so sorry!” Nini, still fazed from the fall, looked up at the figure that stood above her.  Her eyes slowly adjusted, and a tall, curly-haired boy came into view. He had a sheepish smile on his face, and held out a hand to help her up.  Nini took it gratefully.  She hoisted herself up, and held up one finger to pause the boy who had opened his mouth to continue speaking.  </p>
<p>Nini picked up her phone from off the grass, dusting it off on her skirt. “Hey Kourt.  Yeah, I’m fine.  Sorry, I just fell, but I’m all good.  I’ll see you in just a bit, okay?  Bye, girl.  Love ya.”</p>
<p>Once she hung up, the boy continued.  “Sorry, I was moving in and carrying that box over there,” he gestured to the large box now abandoned on the ground.  “I didn’t see you and I guess you didn’t see me.  And I hope you’re okay! This is probably a bad first impression for a new neighbor.”</p>
<p>Nini laughed, “You’re all good. I’m pretty clumsy as it is. I trip on that step on a daily basis,  with or without your help.  So, moving in, huh?  What’s your name?”</p>
<p>“I’m Ricky,” the boy supplied.</p>
<p>“Nini,” she smiled.  “Well, I have to meet my friend Kourtney for lunch and I’m already a few minutes late.  But, it was nice to run into you.”  He smiled at that.  “Good luck with moving the rest of  your stuff!  And I guess I’ll be seeing you around.”</p>
<p>“Bye, Nini.”</p>
<p>ii.<br/>Nini rolled over in her bed, pulling her pillow over her ears.  Music had been blasting from her neighbor’s room for over an hour and she just wanted to sleep.  She had an early studio session the next morning and she was going to kill whoever she was making that racket.  She was an up-and-coming performer, and was still using her own hard-earned money to book the space.  She was not going to waste the time she had booked, and at this rate she was going to walk into the studio sleep-deprived and with a groggy voice.</p>
<p>Nini heard glass shatter and some screams and laughter.  That’s it.  She threw her covers off, marched out of her room and banged on her neighbor’s door.</p>
<p>A clearly intoxicated Ricky opened the door and Nini’s eyes narrowed.  “You.”</p>
<p>Ricky’s eyes were wide as he stared at her, and Nini realized she was still in her pajamas consisting of shorts and a tank top without a bra.  She crossed her arms over herself and humphed, turning to go back into her room with one last sentence “Keep the music fucking down!”</p>
<p>She slammed her door shut.</p>
<p>iii.<br/>Ricky did not get the memo, and the loud music continued every night for a week.  Nini was livid.  How could this boy afford to party every single night?  Did he not have work or something else to do with his time?  He was lucky her studio time had gone okay the other day, despite being barely able to keep her eyes open.  Coffee and red bull was the world’s greatest invention.</p>
<p>This Friday night, Kourtney was sleeping over, a little curious about the noise Nini had been complaining about for a daily basis.</p>
<p>The girls had put on a movie and were lying on Nini’s bed when all of a sudden, they heard what sounded like a stampede coming down the hallway.</p>
<p>“And so it begins,” Nini announced, exasperatedly.  As if on cue, the music turned on.</p>
<p>“Well…” Kourtney began, and Nini turned to her, eyebrow quirked.  “If we can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”</p>
<p>And so, the two girls got to work, calling everyone on their contact lists to come over for a party.</p>
<p>A small group assembled about a half hour later. The posse included: Carlos, Nini’s producer, with his boyfriend Seb; Kourt and Nini’s best friends from high school, Gina and Ashlyn; and Ashlyn’s cousin EJ who was visiting Ashlyn for the weekend, so she had dragged him along.</p>
<p>Nini sighed, looking at Kourt, “There’s no way we can compete with that,” as loud drunken laughter echoed into her apartment.</p>
<p>“But, we can try,” Kourtney clicked on the speakers and loud pop music started playing.  She grabbed her best friend’s hands and started jumping and singing.  Their friends joined in.</p>
<p>The friends were taking shots and singing and laughing in the way only theatre kids could, when Nini heard a loud rap at the door.  She opened the door to find a tipsy redheaded guy around her age, “Um, your music is kind of clashing with ours.  D’you mind turning it down?”</p>
<p>Nini frowned, “Who sent you?”</p>
<p>“Ricky.”  At that, she slammed the door in his face and rejoined her friends.</p>
<p>The rapping at the door started again, more incessantly, and Nini exasperatedly rolled her eyes and shouted as she approached the door. “Tell your stupid friend he’s been doing this to me all week, so he can suck it up and deal with some Taylor Swift-”</p>
<p>She opened the door to find Ricky, standing there with his hands in his pockets.  Nini glared at him and crossed her arms.</p>
<p>“If it makes it any better, I like Taylor Swift?” Ricky offered.</p>
<p>“Why are you sending your stupid friend to tell me to turn my music off then?”</p>
<p>He looked offended. “Because the mashup of my music and yours sounds ridiculous.”</p>
<p>“And that’s my issue because-”</p>
<p>“Just turn your music down.” Ricky turned on his heels and walked back to his place.</p>
<p>“Why should I, if you never did for me?” Nini yelled after him, before slamming her door.</p>
<p>"What happened to that nice kid I first met?" Nini thought, groaning.</p>
<p>iv.<br/>And thus, the dueling parties began.  If there wasn’t music blasting at Ricky’s, there was music blasting at Nini’s.  More often than not, Nini would just play her music to combat Ricky’s even when no one was around.  Little did she know, Ricky had begun doing the same.  His parties had tapered off after the first week.</p>
<p>After a couple weeks of their passive-aggressive unspoken argument, Nini had enough.  She turned her music off and went to knock on Ricky’s door.</p>
<p>He opened the door, and she barged past him to find...an empty apartment.</p>
<p>“Come on in, I guess,” he began sarcastically.</p>
<p>She turned on her heels to glare at him, “What the fuck, Ricky?  No one’s even here.”</p>
<p>“It’s not like anyone is over at your place either.” Nini felt her cheeks burn with anger and embarrassment.</p>
<p>“Ricky, seriously, you were so cool when we first met.  Why are you being so obnoxious?”  Nini demanded.</p>
<p>“The first night, I threw a party.  It’s my first place alone and I was excited.  I was also a little taken aback and drunk when you first came over, so sorry I didn’t really register what was going on.  Red threw the rest of the parties because he still shares an apartment with his brother who’s a professor and hates noise...so.”</p>
<p>“But, that doesn’t mean you can’t turn the music down?  People have lives? And work?  Also, I asked you almost every night for you to turn the music down and you still didn’t.  Clearly right now, no one is even over...” she gestured around the empty expanse of the apartment.</p>
<p>At that, Ricky smirked openly, “If I’m being honest, you’re cute when you’re ticked off.”</p>
<p>That comment made Nini absolutely livid.</p>
<p>“Well then, I must look absolutely ravishing right now, because this is the angriest I have been in the longest time. And to think you’ve been ruining my sleep for weeks because you think I look cute when I’m angry?! I literally have no words-”</p>
<p>Nini hadn’t realized how close she had gotten to him at that point.  She had been taking steps towards him with every sentence for emphasis, and her pointer finger was jabbing his chest.  Her voice caught in her throat as Ricky’s eyes darkened and pulled her tight against him, their lips together in a searing kiss.</p>
<p>She felt herself falling into the kiss, into him, until she suddenly remembered why she was there in the first place.  She pushed herself out of his embrace and took a step away from him, not trusting herself to fall into his arms again, “What are you doing?”</p>
<p>Ricky shrugged, “I think I made myself pretty clear.”</p>
<p>Nini paused, still glaring, and gave him a once-over.  Ricky stared back, not bothering to hide the half-smile on his face.</p>
<p>“Oh, what the hell.”  </p>
<p>Nini closed the distance between them, reaching up to tangle her hands in his curls to pull his mouth back towards her.  He happily obliged, as the song changed to Lover over the speakers.</p>
<p>Ricky pressed his lips to hers and mumbled against them, “Now this, this is my favorite part.”</p>
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